Man Charged in Alleged Plot on Ohio Mall

[mrboba1]

We'll try this again... (thanks Mod)

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040614_922.html

Imagine the timing - what luck! A threat of terror, and then we find and expose it!

[MrBenchley]

1. And yet the terror condition is still "yellow"

Matching the stripe on Cheney's back....

[Tellurian]

34. Travesty of Justice (good read)

No question: John Ashcroft is the worst attorney general in history.

For this column, let's just focus on Mr. Ashcroft's role in the fight against terror. Before 9/11 he was aggressively uninterested in the terrorist threat. He didn't even mention counterterrorism in a May 2001 memo outlining strategic priorities for the Justice Department. When the 9/11 commission asked him why, he responded by blaming the Clinton administration, with a personal attack on one of the commission members thrown in for good measure.

We can't tell directly whether Mr. Ashcroft's post-9/11 policies are protecting the United States from terrorist attacks. But a number of pieces of evidence suggest otherwise.

First, there's the absence of any major successful prosecutions. The one set of convictions that seemed fairly significant — that of the "Detroit 3" — appears to be collapsing over accusations of prosecutorial misconduct. (The lead prosecutor has filed a whistle-blower suit against Mr. Ashcroft, accusing him of botching the case. The Justice Department, in turn, has opened investigations against the prosecutor. Payback? I report; you decide.)

Then there is the lack of any major captures. Somewhere, the anthrax terrorist is laughing. But the Justice Department, you'll be happy to know, is trying to determine whether it can file bioterrorism charges against a Buffalo art professor whose work includes harmless bacteria in petri dishes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/15/opinion/15KRUG.html

[stickdog]

38. Nor did Ashcroft mention malls specifically in his last terror warning.

Why not?

Did the FBI just magically uncover this entire diabolical plot between then and now?

[jobycom]

2. Have any of these stories proven true?

Every one of these "Sky is falling" attacks has turned out to have as much substance as urban myths, and often they have the same feel as those myths. Have any of them proven to be true?

[toopers]

16. Actually, the story references one such plot.

Faris, supposedly admitted to a plot to cut wires on a suspension bridge and derail trains.

[stickdog]

21. And how was this "admission" of thoughtcrime obtained? (nt)

[jobycom]

24. Where's the evidence?

Given what we know of our current government's tactics and their success rates, I don't trust that alleged "confession" any more than anything else these liars have said.

"So, you were planning to cut some wires on a suspension bridge, weren't you?" "I was planning to cut wires on a suspension bridge?" "Thanks for confessing."

[stickdog]

50. FWIIW

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/politics/8922282.htm?1c

Abdi ran a small cell-phone business and was living in Columbus before he was taken into custody Nov. 28 by agents with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. His wife, who was due to have their third child this month, maintains that her husband is innocent and is being targeted because he's Muslim.

Federal authorities on Monday wouldn't reveal details of the alleged plot, including the identities of other co-conspirators. Prosecutors said Abdi wasn't targeting a specific mall, and that an attack wasn't imminent.

Asked whether Abdi had contact with members of al-Qaida overseas, Ashcroft declined to answer. But he pointed to Abdi's association with Faris, whose relationship with top operatives of the terrorist group is a matter of public record since he pleaded guilty last year.

http://www.10tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1939267&nav=LUERNtKt

The FBI did not tell mall operators in Columbus about the plot. They thought the national terror alerts levels were enough, to keep the malls vigilant about security.

http://www.10tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1940430&nav=LUERNu8f

As the day goes on 10TV has learned more about the man accused of being behind this mall-bombing plot.

Abdi, his pregnant wife Sophia and his two children aged two and one moved from a north Columbus apartment complex Sunday. It is unclear why she moved but 10TV does know the family has had some financial setbacks since Abdi's arrest in November.

Family members say Abdi hasn't left the country in the last five years, that he has been a devoted husband, father and business owner. They say they are hoping this is all a huge mistake.

http://kdka.com/local/local_story_166171403.html

While the attorney general refused to discuss how far along the plot was to blow up the mall, sources close to the case say it was not that far along -- and that the strongest part of the case against the suspect arrested today is the immigration case.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/15/national/15terror.html

The indictment against Mr. Abdi makes no mention of the alleged plot to blow up a shopping mall. That reference was contained in the motion filed by prosecutors to keep Mr. Abdi in custody. The government's motion said that Mr. Abdi, Mr. Faris and other co-conspirators "initiated a plot to blow up a Columbus area shopping mall, and accepted bomb-making instructions from one of those co-conspirators."

Abdi's indictment is here:

http://www.dispatch.com/2004/06/14/indictment.pdf

[sidpleasant]

46. I think I remember reading about that scheme

Faris was allegedly going to cut the cables on the Brooklyn Bridge and drop it into the East River. One problem with this notion is obvious to anyone who has ever been on that bridge: the cables (and there are four of them) are a massive 15 1/2 inches in diameter! It was never explained exactly how the plot would unfold. Was Faris going to stop in the middle of the bridge, unpack a plasma cutter from his trunk, and start cutting the cables? Even in jaded New York such an unusual and conspicuous activity would draw attention.

[Catfight]

3. Why Ohio? Wouldn't have anything to do with it being a swing state

now would it?

[RummyTheDummy]

7. Nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

They'd never pull something like that. Would they?

[Maeve]

10. And the chance to get Asscroft's face on tv once again

As the Enforcer, not the Weasel.

Probably meant to blow up Westland Mall--on a busy day there you can play a game of soccer in the middle of the mall and not hit anyone...

[kevin881]

32. I bet similar plots in Florida, Missouri and Pennsylvania are uncovered.

[Kukesa]

36. Kerry will be in Columbus TODAY,

June 15, for a fund-raising event. The following is from Kerry's Ohio for Kerry website:


Tuesday, June 15 - Ohio
Ohio for Kerry invites you to a "Rally in the Park" with John Kerry Tuesday, June 15th, at Westgate Park in Columbus, OH. Westgate Park is located at 455 S. Westgate Avenue, Columbus, OH. Gates open 4:00 PM.

You must have a ticket to attend the rally. To pick up your complimentary tickets, please visit the Ohio Democratic Party office (270 E. State Street) on Monday 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM or Tuesday 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM.

[Atman]

4. Breaking: Ashcroft Unveils Terror Plot Against Swing States

Millions of undecided voters have been protected by the Glorious Leader! Now, go shopping, America! And be sure to drive that SUV!

[struggle4progress]

5. Earlier info

March 10, 2004
Man's fate decided in secret hearing
Deportation is ordered; his family lacks details
After a closed, five-hour hearing Tuesday, a Detroit immigration court judge decided to deport a Somalian man federal officials said they were investigating for possible links to terrorism.
Nuradin Abdi's family denied any such links, and said he was targeted for investigation because he is a Muslim.
Abdi, who ran a small cell phone business, was living in Columbus, Ohio, when federal agents took him into custody Nov. 28. His wife is expecting their third child in June.
<snip>
Because Somalia has no operating government to receive its citizens, and clan wars have ripped the country apart, it is dangerous for members of certain clans to live there.
<snip>
http://www.freep.com/news/locway/secret10_20040310.htm


This seems to be the same fellow:

Nuradin Abdi:
I am a resident at the Manchester Foyer. I came to England from Somalia as a refugee in 1991. As English is my second language, I have to study very hard to keep up with my GNVQ Advanced Health and Social Care Course. There is a lot of written work, which has to be well presented.
I can not afford to buy my own computer so I must use the machines at college and at the Foyer. Without these computers I would not be able to keep up with my studies. After my course I plan to get a job as a psychotherapist.
I really think it is fantastic that the Foyer is providing these facilities. It helps me to have a future.
http://www.niace.org.uk/research/ict/laptops/Foyer.htm

... Manchester Foyer, a support organisation for young homeless people ...
http://www.manchestergalleries.org/html/learningzone/lz_comm_young.jsp

[struggle4progress]

14. Nuradin Abdi: Man not allowed to contact family for three months

MI - Family of Nuradin Abdi, the Somalian man who was arrested on Nov. 28, 2003 for alleged links with terrorism, has not been able to contact him for more than three months and does not know where he is being held.
"He's like a dead person to us," said cousin Asha Yassin Hassan after his secret court hearing on March 9, 2004.
Abdi's brothers, mother, sister and wife drove from Columbus to attend the hearing. They were not allowed in and waited outside the courtroom for six hours. They were not allowed to talk with Abdi, but saw him briefly as armed agents whisked him to and from the courtroom.
http://www.mcrcnet.org/Reports/032004/civilrights032004.htm
Reported on 03/09/04


Another incommunicado detention ...
<edit: link>

[malachi]

6. What timing, indeed!

He has been in custody for 7 months! How many others are being held by the bfee that will be charged as we get closer to the elections?

[mth44sc]

8. Timing is everything

from todays Independant:

Apart from the missed opportunities he highlights, what might be of potentially greater concern is Mr Clarke's belief that al-Qa'ida could easily attack again, and America and Britain remain exceedingly vulnerable. Another attack is not inevitable ("I think almost nothing is inevitable," he said) but possible.

He added: "I think it is harder but I can think of ways of them doing it and I'm sure they can imagine ways of doing it. It's entirely possible there will be another major attack." A dirty bomb, he believes, is probably in the "too hard" category. It is more likely terrorists would use suicide-bombs to attack softer targets, such as casinos or shopping malls. "Those are the two scenarios I use all the time when discussing it," he said. "If you do eight guys in eight shopping malls you have an enormous effect on the economy ... so much of the US economy is tied up with retail sales.

"If you did four casinos with four guys you could destroy the economy of Las Vegas. There are lots of low-end ways of doing things. And the reason they have not done some of the low-end threats, I think, is because they set the barrier for themselves very high with the 9-11 attacks. They may want another major attack; they may feel that if they do less than a major attack will look like a lesser force."

http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/story.jsp?story=531365

[stickdog]

9. OH MY GOD!!!

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/06/14/terrorism.indictment/index.html

Federal prosecutors said Faris checked out the chances of destroying a New York bridge and tried to buy equipment for proposed al Qaeda attacks while appearing to be a law-abiding trucker, according to court documents documents unsealed last year in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.

Faris pleaded guilty May 1, 2003, to providing material support to al Qaeda and to conspiring to do so, according to the documents. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Sources told CNN that al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is in U.S. custody, told his interrogators the target was the Brooklyn Bridge.

*****

I guess some interrogators will buy anything, huh?

[riverwalker]

22. remember all those Israelis in the moving vans?

"while appearing to be a law-abiding trucker"
just rang a bell, thats all.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

11. One of those Somali cabdrivers?

Columbus seems to have alot of Somali cabdrivers for some reason.

I wonder what mall it was?

[Terran]

12. How do you "blow up" a mall?

Most malls would require a small tactical nuke or a daisy cutter to get "blown up", as big as they are. This sounds awfully vague. Even more so than the Padilla case.

[JayS]

15. The overpressure from an AN bomb would be enough to...

...cause massive damage and loss of life. Not to mention the fact that people would start avoiding malls.

[stickdog]

39. Except there's zero evidence that anybody was trying to build such a

bomb.

Less than zero.

[JayS]

41. As far as we know there is no evidence...or there is. n/t

n/t

[cal04]

13. Brother says Somali national charged in mall plot hated terrorists

Somali national charged with plotting to blow up a shopping mall loved the freedom he found in the United States and never spoke badly against the country, his brother said Monday.

"He really hated terrorists," Mohamed AbdiKarani, 17, told The Associated Press. "You know how (President) Bush hates terrorists? I think he hates them more."His brother, Nuradin Abdi, has a son and daughter and his wife is pregnant, he said."He loved it here. He never had as much freedom," AbdiKarani said. "He said it's good to raise his kids here."

A four-count indictment returned by a Columbus grand jury charges that Abdi, 32, conspired with admitted al-Qaida member Iyman Faris and others to detonate a bomb at the unidentified Columbus-area shopping mall after he obtained military-style training in Ethiopia.Faris, a Pakistani native who moved to Columbus in the 1990s, was accused of plotting to cut through the cables that support New York's Brooklyn Bridge.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year.Abdi was friends with Faris through the mosque they attended and his whole family was surprised about Faris' arrest, AbdiKarani said."Every person he's seen, he made them a friend right away," he said of his brother. "He didn't know what Iyman was up to."

http://www.ohionewsnow.com/Global/story.asp?s=1939980

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

25. This does sound kind of odd, doesnt it?

There are alot of African immigrants around here...Sudanese, Somali, and they seem to be pretty happy to be hear.

[stickdog]

28. Yes. Exactly what is this Somalian father of two - with a pregnant wife -

supposed to have against the USA?

[JayS]

30. Beats me. There was an arrest here of a Middle Eastern man...

...that was highly educated and certainly did not seem the type to engage in any illegal activity. He was arrested trying to buy silencers and detonators. Makes you wonder.

[stickdog]

37. Well, this guy was arrested for nothing but immigration violations.

No silencers, no detonators, no explosives, no nothing.

Just an alleged and unexplained "plot" that never targeted a specific mall, never was an "imminent" threat and never got past the "earliest planning stages."

In other words, an Ashcroftian thoughtcrime.

[JayS]

40. All I know about this case is what appears in the papers...

...so I know very little. From exposure to law enforcement I can say with some confidence that the heart of this matter is not going to be in any paper anytime soon.

[stickdog]

42. Look, the "shopping mall plot" isn't even mentioned in the indictment.

The terrorist charges are trumped up bs until proven otherwise.

[JayS]

43. If they truly did have evidence of a plot, I doubt it would be...

...in the indictment unless there was nothing else to hold the guy on. It is kind of like what happens here when you learn that someone has been arrested for having a little marijuana; you always ask what the person really did. The pot charge is just a way to hold someone until the case for something else pans out.

Then again, they may be making the whole thing up. If the media can find more information, and this information is entertaining enough to generate ad revenue, we should soon hear more on this case.

[stickdog]

44. Dude, they just announced the shopping plot to the whole world in a

huge lauditory press conference!

The only logical reason that they kept this charge out of the indictment is that they didn't have jack shit to indict him with.

[JayS]

45. To my knowledge they have not given out any specifics. If...

...they chose to place this in the indictment they would have to do so...but I have not heard if this case will be in federal or state court, or even if there will ever be a case.

[salin]

17. Did we ever hear any more about the guy with explosives who was

planning to kill 1,500 democrats at a presidential caucus - he was from Illinois - and caught in New Jersey?

I know the story was covered here at LBN - but did it ever get any national coverage? OR do rightwing attempts at domestic terrorist attacks get a pass in the media?

[Parche]

18. terra

They make it look like he is from the Middle East or something


This has happened before, and unfortunately, things like this will
happen again, Its not because our so called ignorant war on terra
is doing any good

[SalParadise]

19. This may be true and all, but...

how are we expected to believe them when they make an arrest like this?

The chaplin at Guantanamo Bay, arrested for treason: Released, not really helping the enemy.

The Portland attorney who's fingerprint was supposedly found on evidence in Spain: Released, not really his fingerprint.

I'm sure there are others I'm missing, but good god - you can't even trust these people to be honest about protecting us.

[Eurobabe]

20. Monday's spin machine: FEAR FACTOR ala OHIO style

yawn. this is so fucking old.

[riverwalker]

23. A father of three studying to be a psychotherapist

Oh yeah, he fits the profile. C'mon Asscroft, this is getting old.
In other words, he is a foriegner who "looks different", probably had a cup of coffee in a Starbucks while sitting next to a table with a guy whose second cousin once dated a girl who lived next to the same village as a member of Al Qaida. He was probably arrested with the "evidence" consisting of a pair of wire cutters in his tool box, and a Farmers Almanac with a map of New York and Ohio.
Another "slam dunk" eh?

[Snazzy]

26. Tom Clancy

Last book, Teeth of Tiger

Amazon: "Islamic terrorists ... sneak into the U.S. and move toward their killing-field objectives, four shopping malls in mid-America."

I wonder if he has a summer book coming out, give Asscrack some new material. Somewhere there's a calico cat with his name on it.

[stickdog]

27. More on Asscrap's newest terra-patsy

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/politics/8922282.htm?1c

Abdi ran a small cell-phone business and was living in Columbus before he was taken into custody Nov. 28 by agents with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. His wife, who was due to have their third child this month, maintains that her husband is innocent and is being targeted because he's Muslim.

Federal authorities on Monday wouldn't reveal details of the alleged plot, including the identities of other co-conspirators. Prosecutors said Abdi wasn't targeting a specific mall, and that an attack wasn't imminent.

Asked whether Abdi had contact with members of al-Qaida overseas, Ashcroft declined to answer. But he pointed to Abdi's association with Faris, whose relationship with top operatives of the terrorist group is a matter of public record since he pleaded guilty last year.

http://www.10tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1939267&nav=LUERNtKt

The FBI did not tell mall operators in Columbus about the plot. They thought the national terror alerts levels were enough, to keep the malls vigilant about security.

http://www.10tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1940430&nav=LUERNu8f

As the day goes on 10TV has learned more about the man accused of being behind this mall-bombing plot.

Abdi, his pregnant wife Sophia and his two children aged two and one moved from a north Columbus apartment complex Sunday. It is unclear why she moved but 10TV does know the family has had some financial setbacks since Abdi's arrest in November.

Family members say Abdi hasn't left the country in the last five years, that he has been a devoted husband, father and business owner. They say they are hoping this is all a huge mistake.

http://kdka.com/local/local_story_166171403.html

While the attorney general refused to discuss how far along the plot was to blow up the mall, sources close to the case say it was not that far along -- and that the strongest part of the case against the suspect arrested today is the immigration case.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/15/national/15terror.html

The indictment against Mr. Abdi makes no mention of the alleged plot to blow up a shopping mall. That reference was contained in the motion filed by prosecutors to keep Mr. Abdi in custody. The government's motion said that Mr. Abdi, Mr. Faris and other co-conspirators "initiated a plot to blow up a Columbus area shopping mall, and accepted bomb-making instructions from one of those co-conspirators."

Abdi's indictment is here:

http://www.dispatch.com/2004/06/14/indictment.pdf


**********


Note that this indictment was sealed on the 10th (a Thursday), but that Ashcroft decided to open this indictment at a press conference in Columbus, Ohio today.

A cynical person might suggest that a Monday press conference in a battleground state crowing about a supposedly foiled terra'ist plot to bomb an Ohio shopping mall would have more of a political effect if it took advantage of the Monday news cycle rather than the Friday or weekend news cycle.

[cal04]

29. Captured al-Qa'eda man was FBI spy

The American al-Qa'eda operative unmasked last week as having planned to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge was first detained in March, and has been used by the FBI for months as a double agent, it was reported yesterday.


Iyman Faris
US authorities waited until last week to announce a plea bargain struck with Iyman Faris, a Pakistani-born lorry driver ordered to scout out terror targets, including the New York landmark.
They did not say that Faris, who was also ordered to study ultralight aircraft, and the possibility of derailing a train into a chemical storage facility in Washington, had been under FBI control for months. Justice Department officials told Time magazine that Faris was secretly detained about two weeks after the dramatic capture on March 1 in Pakistan of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al-Qa'eda's chief of operations.

Installed in a safe house in Virginia, Faris sent messages to his terrorist commanders by mobile phone and email. "He was sitting in the safe house making calls for us. It was a huge triumph," a senior Bush administration official told Time.

After pleading guilty to offering material support to al-Qa'eda, Faris will be sentenced in August. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/06/23/walq23.xml

[struggle4progress]

31. Mother Speaks About Son's Terror Indictment

The mother of a Columbus terror suspect spoke out Monday in defense of her son. Nuradin Abdi's mother said there is no way her son is an enemy of the state.
<snip>

"I know my son. He's not a terrorist. He would not be blowing up any place. He's not that kind of person," the interpreter said for Hassan, a native of Somalia.

But the government says 34-year-old Nuradin Abdi planned to blow up a shopping center in Central Ohio.
<snip>

Abdi's mother says her son was about peace and worked hard to raise money for his family.
<snip>

http://www.10tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1941068

[hightime]

33. Here is the Columbus Dispatch article.....

Columbus Dispatch (Ohio)February 10, 2004

SOMALI MAN DETAINED IN GOVERNMENT PROBE

BYLINE: Kevin Mayhood

Early in the morning of Nov. 28, federal agents swept into a North Side neighborhood and arrested a Somali immigrant.

They searched the home of Nuradin Abdi, his family said, and then took him to his business where agents confiscated his cell phone and computers.

Leaving business cards identifying themselves as agents for the FBI and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they then drove Abdi to Cincinnati. The government charged him with lying on his application to enter the United States six years ago, but also accused him of connections with a terrorist plot, members of the Somali community say.

After two months behind bars, without communication with his wife and children or his mother and brothers in Columbus, Abdi, 31, appeared in Detroit's federal immigration court Jan. 28 for a hearing closed to the public.

In a rare move, federal authorities are trying to deport him to Somalia, an African country now controlled by warlords, his attorney said. Although Abdi is jailed, the case is a civil, not a criminal action.

Government officials here, in Detroit and in Washington refuse to talk about Abdi's case. One official confirmed, on condition of anonymity, that the hearing in Detroit was sealed because authorities are in the midst of a sensitive investigation linked to Abdi. Officials refused to say whether the investigation is a terrorist threat.

"We came here because human rights are respected," Nadifa Hassan, Abdi's mother, said with the help of an interpreter yesterday. "My son was taken and there was no criminal charge and he has had no access to his family."

Hassan, a U.S. citizen, wants him released.

The case has instilled fear in Columbus' Somali community of nearly 20,000 that government agents could arrest people for no reason, said Maryan Warsame, head of the Somali Women and Children's Alliance.

"People are profiling this community because of our religion," Warsame said. "We are Muslims, but we are not terrorists."

Some Somalis here speculate the government is interested in someone Abdi knows or knew. His family says Abdi may be a target because he regularly attends prayer services at a Columbus mosque and he speaks Arabic. When he was younger, he was among a number of Somalis who fled to the Middle East to escape the civil war.

"It's a witch hunt," said Abucar Yusuf, an architect who moved to Columbus 20 years ago. Yusuf has been told, "They are arresting him for knowing someone he went to school with 20 years ago."

Abdi is married with two children and another on the way. He is the family's sole breadwinner. His family got only a brief glimpse of him in Detroit.

Asked why the government is taking such measures, Abdi's attorney, Douglas Weigle of Cincinnati, said only, "There's a certain aura around this case."

Abdi probably didn't mind the hearing was closed, Weigle said. "He didn't want anyone to hear any wild accusations about him."

So far, this is simply an immigration case.

"There are no allegations of terrorism in his immigration charge," Weigle said. "He has not been criminally charged with anything."

He said the country's treatment of immigration cases has changed drastically since the Sept. 11 attack. "If you have any kind of Islamic background -- I don't care what John Ashcroft and Tom Ridge say -- you'll be subject to a different kind of scrutiny."

Hassan Omar, leader of the Somali Community Association of Ohio, said the Somali community is not blindly protecting one of its own. "If someone commits a crime, we don't mind if they go to jail," Omar said. He called for state and local, civic and community leaders to speak up on Abdi's behalf.

In Abdi's case, scheduled to resume March 9, the community of war refugees sees no substance to the charge.

"People who lie on their applications do so because they want to stay in the United States and make a future for their children," Warsame said, "because they have no home to go back to."

[JayS]

35. Good article. Thanks. n/t

n/t

[Moderator]

48. hightime,

Please don't post articles in their entirety. Just post 1-4 paragraphs and provide a link. Thanks.

[hightime]

49. Sorry....noob. I have now read the rules and will limit it to 4 paragraphs

And provide a link.

[sofa king]

47. In other barely-related news....

The Senate Hart building--the same one which fielded the anthrax letter to Senator Daschle in 2001--was evacuated today, for reasons unknown to my friends and Congressional staff who were there at the time.

I suppose that might be breaking news worthy of its own thread, but I can't start threads and I can't find any wire reports, anyway. Apparently, this is not the first time this has happened of late, so perhaps the press thinks of it as a non-event.